New York Sporting Licenses on Sale Now

Outdoors men and women can go to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation license sales outlets across the state now to buy their 2013-2014 licenses for the next hunting, trapping and fishing seasons. In addition to going to one of the 1,500 locations, the licenses are available at the D.E.C. website at www.dec.ny.gov.

The licenses are valid beginning the first of October.

The state has been actively courting new anglers over the past several months with weekends of license-free fishing, youth clinics and appearances by Governor Andrew Cuomo promoting sport fishing.

On the big-game hunting front, wildlife biologists say there has been an increase in the harvest of antlerless deer in New York over the past several years due to an increase in the animals' population.

Because of the boom in the number of deer in the state, the D.E.C. has planned to increase the number of Deer Management hunting licenses by 18% this season.

The population growth has been attributed by state biologists to the mild winter conditions in 2011-2012 followed by a below average winter in many parts of the state the following year.